As an editorial resident here at AIGA, I spend heaps of time on the internet scouring social media and websites for the choicest design news. You’re too busy with your life to do this each week, so I’ve brought all my findings here—consider it my weekly gift to you (you’re welcome). Follow along all day, every day on Instagram @AIGAeyeondesign, Facebook, and Twitter @AIGAeyeondesign.

“It’s with great pleasure that we can announce our annual editorial conference,” says Magculture of its 2017 edition. “The Modern Magazine will be returning this autumn for another jam-packed day of talks from designers, editors and publishers.” And it’s with GREAT pleasure that I can suggest you pick up tickets for this year’s soon-to-be-sold-out event. Having attended The Modern Magazine on no fewer than three occasions, I can thoroughly recommend the programming, pace, drinks sponsor and venue choice (a new location for this year, and a bigger one) for this fifth instalment of everyone’s favorite magazine-makers’ knees-up.

Do you think you understand blockchain? No, I mean, do you really understand blockchain? Tell me then, is it like Bitcoin? I have no idea either, so I’m grateful to the commissioning team at MIT Technology Review for getting Julian Glander to put together this little explainer of “a continuously growing list of digital assets,” in a fashion that doesn’t leave me utterly bereft of clues. I get it now. I could explain it to a crowd of guests at a drinks party, and now you can too.

Freelancing’s brutal, ain’t it? At least that’s the impression I get whenever I’m adrift between employers. It’s also the impression given in this little teaser for a series of upcoming films made for business tools brand AndCo. “I think in New York you really need to be making cash all the time,” says digital artist Alex Trochut over a pulsing soundtrack. “If not the city doesn’t allow you to stay.” Along with designer Zipheng Zhu, ceramicist Helen Levi, and chef Adriana Urbina, Trochut is set to bare all about the trials and tribulations of being self-employed in the toughest city on earth. Keep an eye out for the full films.

LOVE, Peri.A Branding

LOVE, Peri.A Branding

LOVE, Peri.A Branding

LOVE, Peri.A Branding

LOVE, Peri.A Branding

LOVE, Peri.A Branding

“L.A. socialite Peri Arenas asked Manchester agency, Love, to ‘brand the shit out of her’ for her new fashion store” isn’t the kind of line you read on a press release all that often. But there it is, the no-bullshit approach to getting a design journalist’s attention. Indeed the no bullshit approach extends to the work itself; instead of the usual po-faced, pared-back drudgery we often associate with the business of style, Love’s branding is all-singing, all-dancing, all frills, all up in your face, and you know what, I’m into it. Anyone who can persuade their client to jump into a giant bag for a photo shoot deserves some serious kudos—and if you can throw some light cussing into the press release too, then more power to you.

Michele Galluzzo, Ficciones Typografika 1486-1488 (72”x36”)

One of my favourite monthly rituals is to check in with Erik Brandt at Ficciones Typografika and see what manner of matter he’s been wheat pasting up on the side of his house. It gives me a real sense of satisfaction to see someone keeping on with a project month after month, year after year, with the diligence of a lighthouse keeper, for no discernible reward other than the sense of satisfaction it must give him to have a permanent exhibition on the go in his back garden. Of course now that he’s speaking at our Eye on Design conference, you’d be forgiven for thinking that my interest in Erik’s projects is inextricably bound with my concern for selling tickets to that upcoming event in Minneapolis on October 11. But you’d be wrong. Dead wrong. Oh look, he’s put up some new posters!

Had anyone younger written this little piece in Design Observer, I’d be the first to decry its horrific ageism and political incorrectness. But as it’s penned by Steven Heller, I’ve allowed myself a little chuckle at the golden oldies of our profession, and Mr Heller’s 10 little lessons that demonstrate ‘How You Can Tell If You Are An Old Fogey Designer.’ Top tip; if you use the word “fogey” at all, you’re giving yourself away.

One last plug for the Eye on Design Conference? Sure! Why not take a look at this little interview we did with esteemed speaker Ping Zhu…